Chapter 20 - Bills

128 Bills received from the House of Representatives

Bills coming to the Senate for the first time from the House of Representatives shall be proceeded with in the same manner as bills presented pursuant to orders of the Senate.

Amendment history

Adopted: 19 August 1903 as SO 225 but renumbered as SO 224 for the first printed edition

1989 revision: Old SO 231 renumbered as SO 128; greatly simplified in expression by the removal of archaic references to Public and Private Bills and the procedures to apply to each

Commentary

Bills are received from the House of Representatives under cover of a message from the Speaker. They are delivered to the Senate chamber by the Serjeant-at-arms (Photo courtesy of AUSPIC)

See SOs 111 to 124. Like bills introduced in the Senate (a minority of bills), bills received from the House of Representatives are invariably dealt with under the expedited proceedings in SO 113. Even at the time that the 1938 MS was compiled, Edwards notes:

In the overwhelming majority of cases it has been found necessary, when a Bill is received from the House of Representatives, for the Leader of the Government in the Senate to move – That so much of the Standing and Sessional Orders be suspended as would prevent the Bill being passed through all its stages without delay. A Contingent Notice of Motion appears as a standing entry on the Senate Notice Paper.